Toby Harnden was the Daily Telegraph's US Editor, based in Washington DC, from 2006 to 2011. Click here for Toby's website. Follow him on Twitter here @tobyharnden and on Facebook here. He is the author of the bestselling book Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story Britain's War in Afghanistan.

Rahm Emanuel: another day off message for Barack Obama

So today we are going to be told what we all know already: Rahm Emanuel is quitting as White House chief of staff to run for Mayor of Chicago. For some inexplicable reason, President Barack Obama thinks that this merits an East Room announcement.

On balance, I think Emanuel will be a loss. Yes, he's abrasive and foul-mouthed and he's alienated liberals. And he had failed to woo Republicans on Capitol Hill despite the respect they have for him. But he never swooned over Obama and was an antidote to the Obama groupies from the 2008 campaign, a reality check for the commander-in-chief.

The indications are that Obama will replace him with someone from inside the bubble so the President will be even more susceptible to group think.

Whatever Emanuel's strengths, however, it is a mistake to laud a staffer in the East Room as he leaves. Even a day not talking about the economy is a day off message for Obama. Emanuel is leaving now for understandable reasons – the mayoral election is in February – but his departure before the mid-terms is unfortunate at best for Obama.

Reshuffles are normally held after an election defeat. Obama's is coming beforehand and Emanuel's farewell has been dragged out and made a bigger deal than it needs to be.

Still, Emanuel's going and the silly White House coyness over it did produce this wonderful exchange between Robert Gibbs, Obama's chief flack, and the indefatigable Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times:

GIBBS: I know there’s — I know there’s a lot of stuff out there. I will say this — I’ve got no personnel announcements today, but I will say that the President will have a personnel announcement tomorrow at 11:05 a.m. from the East Room. We will save the specifics for then, and we’ll be happy to get into a long conversation about that. I don’t have any news on that to make –

SWEET: But why the charade? I mean, everyone knows what this is about. Why can’t you just tell us?

GIBBS: Lynn, I read your paper. I’ve read a number of papers. I’m here to tell you the President will have a personnel announcement tomorrow, and at that point he will deliver that news.

SWEET: Has the chief of staff told the President that he’s leaving?

GIBBS: I’m not going to get into that.

SWEET: Why is this raising to the level — sometimes you make personnel announcements just by paper, you make a release. Why is this announcement rising to the level of a personal announcement by the President?

GIBBS: Well, I — without getting into what the announcement will be –

SWEET: When people listen to this, this will sound like a game since we’re talking about Rahm Emanuel’s departure to run for the mayor of Chicago.

GIBBS: Lynn, come up here. (Laughter.) You should brief, and we can — look, guys –

SWEET: I’m just trying to move the ball along here.

GIBBS: We all have deadlines; I understand that. I’m happy to talk about a whole host of subjects today. I am not going to move a whole lot on what I’ve already said.

SWEET: So the news report is accurate that he is leaving to run for mayor of Chicago.